Staff at Izakaya Tomo Japanese Tapas Bar, 3739 99th St.

Photograph by: Larry Wong
, Edmonton Journal

EDMONTON - If you wanted to open an interesting, cool, hot-spot-in-the-making, slipping it into a bland strip mall alongside carpet, luggage and mattress stores with a view of the trainyards would be madness. Or would it?

This is a stark, light-industrial stretch of 99th Street, an area where “lively” used to mean more than three concurrent birthday parties at Let’s Play, or perhaps feeding time for the mini sharks at Big Al’s fish store.

Until Izakaya Tomo moved in, that is.

An izakaya is the Japanese equivalent of a tapas bar, except nowhere near Spain, or Japan, or downtown Edmonton, in this case. Popular fixtures in big cities like Vancouver and Toronto, Tomo’s (which means “friend” in Japanese) is the first and only izakaya in E-town, and it’s already attracting plenty of attention.

On the cold and snowy late-ish weeknight we visited, the place was hopping with students, couples, families with babies and a table of middle-aged men who vaguely resembled longshoremen, all seated at picnic-style tables laden with small, stoneware plates and bowls that manage to be both rustic and delicately Japanese at the same time.

Outside it may be windswept, bone-chilling, late winter in Edmonton, but inside, it’s the way I imagine a rustic/modern Japanese spa might be, had I ever been to one — a cross between an impeccably clean, cedar-lined sauna and a high-ceilinged, minimalist bar.

One wall is adorned with Japanese characters, meant as an inspirational message to staff, courtesy of owner Tomoya Mutaguchi himself. Take pride and pleasure in whatever you’re doing, no matter how big or small, our server loosely translates.

The motto is particularly apt in a place that specializes in small food, attractively presented and of beautiful quality.

Mutaguchi used to work at Mikado, and had long dreamed of opening his own sushi restaurant. But when the time came, he chose to do something different. “All the Japanese restaurants here are similar — same menu, same concept,” he says. “Sushi, sashimi and chicken teriyaki.”

“I wanted to bring a new style of restaurant, a new style of food.”

Izakaya Tomo does sell the sushi and sashimi already familiar to local fans of Japanese food. But it also introduces new foods and flavours, along with playful fusion dishes combining things like Japanese udon noodles with Italian sauces of carbonara and aglio e peperoncino (olive oil and hot peppers).

We opted for the more authentic experience, sticking to Japanese dishes, or versions thereof, that we hadn’t tried before.

The tuna yukke ($6.95) was a mix of ultra-fresh, chopped raw tuna, a fresh quail egg and bits of avocado — a wonderful textural experience.

Unagi don ($7.95) was comprised of the barbecued eel we’d had before, but this time, sitting on a small mound of rice covered in “mountain potato” — a slimy, white vegetable similar in taste and texture to spaghetti squash.

The chicken nandan ($8.95) was another interesting combination of small cubes of fried chicken in a sweet marinade served alongside a dollop of chopped, cooked egg white mixed with mayonnaise, garnished with pretty chips of fried lotus root.

We did try the sea urchin because it was one of the evening’s specials and it was special indeed — fresh, flavourful and mousse-like in texture, at $3.50 per piece.

We topped it all off with some Japanese ginger beer and another odd but tasty fusion item, a sake Caesar.

Mutaguchi says he’s surprised at how quickly Edmontonians have embraced the izakaya concept. At first, his clientele was mostly Asian, but that’s changing as word spreads, he adds. “I thought it would take more time,” he admits.

For those unfamiliar with the offerings, particularly in the extensive drink list that includes sake, shochu, plum wine and a wide variety of beer, the menu and website offer all kinds of advice.

Because the dishes are inherently small — it’s tapas, not T.G.I. Fridays — there are two alternatives: order more dishes, or save room for dessert, which we did.

Both of the ones we chose centred around green tea ice cream: the first, a scoop between two tiny pancakes, alongside a bit of sweet red bean paste, garnished with a couple of mochi, a yummy Japanese marshmallow-like treat, these ones embedded with sesame seeds; the second, green tea ice cream served with brown sugar and plum wine served in the tiniest, Thumbelina-sized jug to pour over top. Both came with pretty, wooden spoons that looked like little paddles.

The atmosphere was warm and welcoming — it’s an izakaya custom for staff (and patrons if they like) to shout “welcome” and “goodbye” in Japanese each time someone new arrives or leaves — and the food was delicious, fresh and exciting.

Izakaya Tomo makes the trip to this south Edmonton strip mall worth it, even when it’s not your birthday, or time to feed the sharks.

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